Takes more than venting to be a patriot

Letters to the editor for July 4, 2013: Patriotism; S.D. Community College District; immigration; gasoline tax; off-roading; Goldsmith; power rates

Patriotism involves
more than griping

I really enjoyed the article “Criticism Is Not Unpatriotic” that appeared in your Sunday Opinion section (June 30).

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I have many Facebook friends and family who are constantly posting extremely negative, biased articles about the government, the president and their general lack of confidence in the way our country is moving. A lot of it appears to be just plain outrageous propaganda.

I know for a fact that most of the people posting these articles never vote, never have written a letter to their government representatives or newspaper and have never done anything constructive to improve their communities. Worse yet, in doing this I get the impression they are just venting what they personally dislike under the guise of patriotism.

My favorite line in this article was “A true patriot cannot be a cynic.” It appears I am surrounded by a lot of the-glass-is-half-full people who just don’t get the fact that they are perpetuating the problem — not actively working toward the solution.

Cynthia Kutasy

Hemet

S.D. Comm. College
has added classes

The letter regarding summer school in the San Diego Community College District was inaccurate (“S.D. Community College closed for summer,” Letters, July 3).

Although during the past three years the state reduced enrollment in all community colleges, the San Diego Community College District continued to serve thousands of students for whom no compensation was provided by the state.

With the passage of Prop 30, the district immediately added 450 class sections at City, Mesa, and Miramar colleges and at the six campuses of Continuing Education. The district is adding another 400 to 500 class sections for the fall and spring. It is important to provide full funding and restoration for the primary semesters, fall and spring, when most local students attend.

The summer session was reduced in favor of expanding the fall and spring semesters. With continuing budgetary improvements, it is our plan to restore summer session 2014. Our students have benefited from prudent planning, including our district’s commitment to assign top priority for new funding to additional class sections that are so urgently needed.

Constance M. Carroll

Chancellor

S.D. Comm. College District

Fence should not stop immigration reform

As a “self-righteous” Mexican-American who favors immigration reform, I must confess that I do not follow the argument that building a fence won’t work, so it should not be built (“Immigration reform takes a wrong turn,” Op-Ed, July 3).

I agree that the fence will cost money, and it will be a minor hindrance to those who wish to continue to cross the border without authorization. Surely the objection by Ruben Navarrette is not the expenditure of the money. Therefore what is the objection? That it militarizes the border? It already is.

If it makes the anti-reform Republicans happy to build a fence so that they will vote for immigration reform, build it. And the United States as a sovereign nation has the right to build a fence anywhere and as big as it likes. Is the objection that Mexico will be upset? Why, because the fence is now 700 miles long, when it was 600 miles?

Advocates of immigrants say the fence will not hinder those trying to cross. Then what will it matter if the fence is 600 miles or 1,000?

They say it will be an unnecessary expense. Did they suddenly become fiscal conservatives?

The fence is not an argument worth losing immigration reform.

Alex Romero

El Centro

Higher gas tax is
a real head-scratcher

Gas producers shut down whenever for “repairs,” for “seasonal blend change” and we absorb the cost per gallon hike, but they suffer no consequences. Next, car manufacturers produce cars with higher mpg ratings, and, therefore, we consume less gasoline in these more efficient cars we have bought; we further adjust our driving to reduce gasoline consumption — using mass transit, car pools, smarter shopping routes, and such.

Because we have done such a good job at what we were asked to do, what happens? Our Board of Equalization raises gasoline taxes as of July 1 by 3.5 cents per gallon (right at the start of summer driving) to make up for their lost tax revenue because we drive more efficient cars and conserve on gas consumption, so many of us will further reduce our gas consumption (vacations and such) and have less to spend on these vacations. Hmmm ... the logic is illogical. I guess we will next raise sales taxes to make up for tax revenue lost due to consumer spending due to the gasoline tax hike. Now, I am really confused!

Howard Estes

Point Loma

Off-roaders should have their own place

As a fellow off-roading enthusiast, I firmly agree with the position the U-T editorial board has taken in the piece “Let off-roaders roam in their own park.”

Environmental groups are working diligently to have every OHV Recreation Area shut down permanently. With fewer places to go, the remaining OHV sites have become more crowded and dangerous for everyone involved. Even the land suffers from the increased volume of off-roaders forced into smaller OHV areas.

What environmentalists think is saving the land, is in fact causing more damage. Increased traffic on smaller terrain has forced motorists to use untouched areas, damaging more plants and animal species. We OHV enthusiasts have the same love and passion for the outdoors as environmentalists and know the importance of land conservation. This, as the author noted, is why we make use of land that was set aside in the 1980s, expressly for the purpose of off-roading.

With over 644,236,160 acres of federally protected land in America, the small area at Ocotillo Wells consisting of 85,000 acres shouldn’t constitute much controversy from environmentalists. Keeping this park open would benefit not only the off-roading community, but would reduce the effect they have on the land as well.

Craig Hall

San Diego

Goldsmith should call it quits

City Attorney Jan Goldsmith’s ostentatious public conflicts with the Mayor’s Office, and his politically motivated prosecutions of our citizens, are nothing short of outrageous.

Mr. Goldsmith’s latest abuse of power was answered with a “not guilty” verdict for the San Diegan that Goldsmith tried to put behind bars for merely writing political slogans that Mr. Goldsmith did not like on the sidewalk in chalk.

Time and again, Mr. Goldsmith has demonstrated himself utterly incapable of responsibly executing the duties of his office.

For the good of our city, he should resign.

Eric Alan Isaacson

La Jolla

Power rate hikes target solar

The push by local utilities to flatten the tiered rate structure has nothing to do with fairness and everything to do with suppressing residential solar. They tried imposing a surcharge for access to the grid. That having failed, now this.

In June 2011 I used 627 kWh. I was charged as follows: $0.14/kWh for the first 278 kWh; $0.17/kWh between 279–361; $0.31/kWh between 362–556; and $0.33/kWh for the remaining 71. By virtue of being in ‘Tier 4,’I was among their most profitable residential customers. I leased a residential solar system in November 2011.

In June of 2012 I drew all of 91 kWh from the neighborhood, for which I was charged $0.15/kWh. My solar system replaced the power I would otherwise have drawn and been charged at the Tiers 2, 3 and 4 prices. I thus went from among their most profitable to among their least profitable customers.

There are no “peaks and valleys of energy costs throughout the day.” There are peaks and valleys of demand on the grid from the neighborhood substation. Residential solar, by adding power to the neighborhood (it does not go back on the grid) when it needs it most, is the best way to lower aggregate demand on the grid, thus using less fossil fuel. Each residential solar system is a miniature “peaker plant.”

See this for what it is: Management at the local utilities are trying to keep their most profitable customers from going solar.